We had a chance to ask Adam Fletcher (PezRadar) some questions about Gears of War 4 that fans wanted to know! We asked in a tweet to post your questions and lots were answered. Some big relevations below, and some discussion about other small points in the game that have caused some good debate.

So, let’s get into the Q&A!

Q: Would you consider bringing back rank emblems? Pretty sad I was 1 tier away and couldn’t finish it. The communication wasn’t there.
A: Yep. May end up just including it for each of the seasons going forward on a rotating basis.

Q: Do the people in charge of making changes in Multiplayer actually play Multiplayer?
A: This is a question I’ve answered numerous times but I shall repeat! Of course. Pretty much all the MP designers play on their own free time and this includes the level designers. We also have a good amount of guys within the studio that play Versus and Horde as they constantly come over and bring back feedback to myself and Octus. People ask this question because they feel like the game isn’t catered directly to them thus they have a difference of opinions from what is done in-game.

Q: Is there any story DLC planned? Will we get Skorge?
A: Currently we do not have any story DLC planned for Gears of War 4. Skorge? Maybe? We shall see!

Q: Can we expect the Gears of War franchise to have a presence at E3?
A: E3 is only a few weeks away. I guess we will have to wait and find out!

Q: The ranking system seems like a fantastic major update. Will we see more major updates and can you share any information on what they might be?
A: Yep – The next major update is on the horizon and will include some significant updates for Horde along with some other cool content that I know some people are excited for.

Q: Will we ever see Clayton Carmine again?
We will be seeing some of the Carmine’s returning in their zombie form. Will we see them back in their non-zombie form or Clayton? TBD. I would say prospects are looking good though.

Q: Will Multiplayer Special Events ever last the entirety of the month like the horde events instead of just the weekend?
A: This is a possibility. We may end up having Versus and Horde events carry over through the whole month.

Q: Are The Coalition working on new things for current Season Pass holders?
A: We potentially have one other thing planned that goes on top of the other items we have included for all SP owners. Hopefully will have news on that soon.

Q: Will footsteps be made to be clearer in future updates?
A: We adjusted some of the audio issues with a few of our newer characters (RAAM and Kantus) with this latest update. We may do additional tweaks to other footstep audio in the future. It just goes down to the feedback we receive. Each time we tweak it, it seems to get better but we also get off the wall feedback that skews things where some people claim it was worse than before.

Q: Will older esports packs such as esports Supporter Season 1 ever be making a return?
A: Most likely in the form of their collection packs as we transition to new esports packs!

Q: What is the mood like in the office upon new map release days? The hour before and the hour after the community reactions.
A: The hour before? Usually everyone isn’t in yet because we tend to do those announcements before the studio is open. Damn you early morning press releases! But throughout the day most people have reddit or news sites up as they are reading about reactions or feedback from a TU announce. Quite a few are playing the dev playlist during the lunch hour on launch day as well.

Q: With cross-play expanding will the mouse be available to be used by Xbox One players?
A: This is currently not planned for Gears 4. Don’t know if it will be for other games.

Q: Have The Coalition looked into a unified weapon tuning instead of 2?
A: I talked about this on Tac-Com a few weeks back but we are always looking into a unified weapon tuning set. The issue is that our casual/social players prefer core tuning and the feeling of killing characters quickly while competitive tuning is more for our hardcore players. Competitive tuning allows for longer engagements and more skill needed to get a kill and our social/casual Gears fans have not been huge fans of that specific playlist due to difficulty it takes to get a down. This doesn’t mean we are very adamant on having 2 tunings but this does put us in a precarious situation as we do not want to abandon or alienate one set of fans due to another one’s intentions. I will also say that our social/casual player base is monstrous in size compared to our hardcore fans so abandoning either group isn’t something we want to do.

Q: As I know many Gears of War players will want to know, when is the enforcer getting a nerf? It never seems to get touched when trying to balance the weapons.
A: We haven’t received significant feedback regarding the enforcer needing to be nerfed. We typically get a few people that claim it is overpowered but another group that says it is fine and there are counters. We’ve also done feedback surveys to our hardcore group and most find the tuning to be within the delta that we are comfortable with. If we see this change, we will make tweaks.

Q: Will there be a better credit and XP payout in the future?
A: There could possibly be but as of now, we are okay with our current payouts. I think bounties could potentially get another pass to help boost those up.

Q: Will we see fan favourite weapon skins from UE in Gears of War 4 at some point?
A: Maybe. Weapon skins aren’t as easy as most assume as it requires a good amount of materials work and concept work on our end. Setting up weapon skins in-game in Gears 4 is totally different than how it was handled in UE as there is more detail and pieces involved. We may see some returning ones but I can’t guarantee we will see every single one.

And just for LoryatQ: Are you mad that his Maple Leafs are in the playoffs and your Dallas Stars are not?
Not really as the Maple Leafs are out and we moved up in the Draft Lottery to #3! Post-season only makes sense if you win it all. Everything else is a loss if you don’t get the cup!

We’d like to thank Adam for taking the time to answer all these questions!